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Memory device and method for thermoelectric heat confinement

a memory device and thermoelectric heat confinement technology, applied in information storage, static storage, digital storage, etc., can solve the problems of insufficient thermal disturb, insufficient conventional solutions alone, and insufficient conventional solutions to solve thermal disturb problems

Inactive Publication Date: 2016-04-14
IBM CORP
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent describes a memory device that uses thermoelectric heat confinement to store data. The device includes a plurality of cells, each containing a first electrode, a second electrode, and a phase-change material. The electrodes and phase-change material are arranged so that the current flow interface points on one side of the material in one cell, and on the opposite side in a neighboring cell. This arrangement helps to confine the heat generated during the writing process to the specific cell, resulting in more reliable data storage. The method for producing this device is also provided.

Problems solved by technology

Storing multiple resistance levels in a PCM cell is a challenging task.
But none of the conventional solutions alone can be sufficient to solve the thermal disturb problem.
Additionally, some of the conventional solutions suffer from a trade-off between heat deflection and heat generation.
When a deflection heat pathway is provided to lower the temperature at the neighboring PCM cell, the temperature in the written PCM cell is also lower so that the power consumption increases disadvantageously.

Method used

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  • Memory device and method for thermoelectric heat confinement
  • Memory device and method for thermoelectric heat confinement
  • Memory device and method for thermoelectric heat confinement

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first embodiment

[0043]FIG. 1 shows a memory device 100 for thermoelectric heat confinement. The memory device 100 includes a plurality s of PCM cells 10, 20 (s≧2). Without loss of generality, s=2 in FIG. 1.

[0044]Each of the PCM cells 10, 20 has a first electrode 11, 21, a second electrode 12, 22 and a phase-change material 13, 23 (or phase-change layer).

[0045]For example, the PCM cell 10 has the first electrode 11, the second electrode 12 and the phase-change material 13. The phase-change material 13 is arranged between the first electrode 11 and the second electrode 12.

[0046]In the following, the thermoelectric heat confinement for the PCM cell 10 is described. The PCM cell 20 has an identical structure as the PCM cell 10. Thus, the same description can be also applied to memory cell 20.

[0047]In the PCM cell 10, the first electrode 11 and the phase-change material 13 are arranged such that the surface normal N of a dominating interface 15 for a current flow between the first electrode 11 and the p...

second embodiment

[0056]FIG. 4 shows a memory device 100 for thermoelectric heat confinement. The memory device 100 of FIG. 4 is based on a sidewall-electrode cell design.

[0057]The memory device 100 of FIG. 4 shows two PCM cells 10, 20, wherein both share one common bit line BL. The PCM cell 10 of FIG. 4 has a first electrode 11, a second electrode 12 and a phase-change material 13. The first electrode 11 is a sidewall-electrode connected to a word line WL1 for the PCM cell 10. The second electrode 12 is a heater electrode connected to the common bit line BL. The phase change material 13 is arranged between the sidewall-electrode 11 and the heater electrode 12.

[0058]The PCM memory cell 20 shown in the right of FIG. 4 has a first electrode 21 embodied as a sidewall-electrode, a second electrode 22 and a phase-change material 23. As it can be seen in FIG. 4, the second electrode 22 of the PCM cell 20 corresponds to the second electrode 12 of the PCM cell 10. That means that the PCM cells 10, 20 also sh...

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Abstract

A memory device for thermoelectric heat confinement and method for producing same. The memory device includes a plurality of phase-change memory cells, wherein each of the phase-change memory cells has a first electrode, a second electrode and a phase-change material. The first electrode and the phase-change material are arranged such that a surface normal of a dominating interface for a current flow between the first electrode and the phase-change material points on one side to the phase-change material of the phase-change memory cell and on an opposite side to a phase-change material of a neighboring phase-change memory cell. A method for producing a memory device for thermoelectric heat confinement is also provided.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION[0001]This application claims the benefit of priority from United Kingdom Patent Application No. 1414427.3, filed Aug. 14, 2014, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The invention relates to a memory device for thermoelectric heat confinement having a plurality of programmable phase-change memory cells. Moreover, the invention relates to a method for producing such a memory device for thermoelectric heat confinement.BACKGROUND[0003]A prominent example for programmable phase-change memory cells having a plurality of programmable levels or states is Resistive Random Access Memory (“RRAM”), particularly phase change memory (“PCM”). PCM is a non-volatile solid-state memory technology that exploits the reversible, thermally-assisted switching of specific chalcogenides between certain states of different electrical conductivity.[0004]PCM is a promising and advanced emerging non-volatile memory technolo...

Claims

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Application Information

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IPC IPC(8): G11C13/00
CPCG11C13/0004G11C13/0069G11C13/004G11C2013/008G11C2213/50H10N70/8413H10N70/8616H10N70/8613H10N70/231H10N70/881H10N70/826
Inventor ATHMANATHAN, ARAVINTHANKREBS, DANIEL
Owner IBM CORP